In 1929, after conducting a house-to-house canvass throughout the City of Buffalo, Herman Wile, President of Temple Beth Zion, became concerned that a large number of Jewish children of school age were receiving no Jewish education. Around the same time, the Citizens' Committee of Buffalo Jewry also conducted a survey of Jewish communal life in Buffalo. Louis Hurwich, Director of the Bureau of Jewish Education of Boston, recommended the establishment of a bureau of Jewish education in Buffalo. With support from the Jewish Federation of Greater Buffalo, the Bureau of Jewish Education (BJE) was founded in the fall of 1929 with Herman Wile as President. In 1930, Ben Edidin was named its first Executive Director.

From the start, the purpose of the BJE was to unite the Buffalo Jewish community by fostering Jewish education for all children regardless of their parents' financial or residential status, and to provide adult Jewish studies, as well as to offer informational, advisory, and teacher training services to area congregational schools. The BJE is a constituent agency of the Jewish Federation of Greater Buffalo. It is governed by a board composed of a rabbi selected by the Buffalo Board of Rabbis as well as appointed general members from the greater Jewish community. Both in the past and currently, the BJE has focused on coordinating Jewish educational activities and religious school programming in the Greater Buffalo area, conducting community outreach and education programs, organizing retreats and conferences for Hebrew school teachers, and fundraising for student scholarships.

There were many accomplishments in the BJE's history. The High School of Jewish Studies, founded during the directorship of Dr. Uriah Z. Engelman (1939-1944), has evolved into a program in which students are exposed to interdisciplinary personal and professional approaches to prepare them for higher education and lifelong learning of Judaism. In 1944, new Director Dr. Mark M. Krug founded a Jewish Kindergarten and a College of Jewish Studies. Under the leadership of Reuben Resnik from 1959 to 1969, the BJE centralized all secondary Jewish education in the High School and College of Jewish Studies (later the Institute of Jewish Studies).

In 1979, the BJE changed its direction to build a new community relationship in Buffalo public schools. Staff visited classes to explain Jewish holidays and customs, and developed units on Judaism and Jewish history in secondary school social studies classes. This new focus included an emphasis on Jewish cultural identity within the entire Buffalo community. At the same time, the BJE's relationship with Buffalo State College and the State University of New York at Buffalo became official. Students could take college courses at the BJE's Institute of Jewish Studies and were able to transfer credits to these SUNY institutions.

In the 1990s, the BJE enhanced its teacher training programs for affiliated congregational schools through workshops, seminars, and conferences at all levels, while its library expanded its collection of teachers' instructions and teaching resource materials. The Pre-School Teachers Enrichment Program, Teachers Enrichment Day, and Fall Back into School are three major teacher in-service programs of the Bureau that began during this decade. Other 1990s initiatives include high school field trips to New York City and Washington, DC, and the Israel Teen Travel Program. The Yom Limmud programs, which offer weekend camp experiences for elementary and middle school students, gave each grade level, on an annual basis, the opportunity to sample cultural, ethical, financial, historical, political, and religious themes selected by the sponsoring synagogues. Under Cantor Mark Hurowitz, BJE Executive from 1997 to 2004, the merger of former Temple based high school programs under BJE auspicies was bought to fruition.

The Bureau of Jewish Education is currently a member of JESNA (Jewish Education Service of North America) and NAACCHS (North American Association of Community and Congregational Hebrew High Schools) and has previously been a member of the American Association for Jewish Education, the Association for Childhood Education International, the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education, the National Council for Jewish Education, United Jewish Education, and the World Jewish Bible Society.

Under current Executive Director Evie Weinstein the Bureau of Jewish Education has integrated the Yad B'Yad program which provides outreach, advocacy and program support to individuals with disabilities to enable their full inclusion in Jewish life. The BJE also initiated the Jewish Buffalo Archives Project with the goal of documenting and making available the historical records of Jewish agencies, institutions, groups, families and individuals through a partnership with University at Buffalo Archives. Other new programs include A Taste of Hebrew High, College Caravan and leadership tracks within the High School, enabled by the Brandeis University Fellowship Program. Besides the above programs, the BJE supports the Florence Melton Adult Mini Schools, Buffalo Jewish Teen Scene, and the Jewish Civic Initiative.

The Bureau has collaborated with all Jewish agencies and synagogues as well as many non-Jewish organizations in Western New York. In 2007, the office of the BJE moved to the Temple Beth Zion building at 805 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, New York from North Forest Road, Amherst, New York. At earlier times in their history, the BJE offices have been in such locations as the Gerrans Building, 434 Prudential Building, 405 Chamber of Commerce Building, 2640 North Forest Road in Getzville, and 787 Delaware Avenue.